The Syracuse men's lacrosse seniors were on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history when they were freshmen.

That year, the No. 2 seed Orange lost to Army in double overtime at the Carrier Dome. SU was coming off back-to-back national titles. It had lost just once before in an NCAA Tournament game at the Dome.

Syracuse earned the top seed in the bracket this year and drew 8-10 Bryant in the first round. With that loss to Army in their minds, the seniors are making sure the rest of the Orange does not take this opening game lightly.

"That's going to be harped upon in practice this week and today in practice," defenseman Brian Megill said Monday. "Despite Bryant being 8-10, they're on a run. ... They're doing a really good job."

Syracuse, though, appears to have the right mindset to avoid a similar let down this year. Its three losses this year came against teams that were unranked at the time, so they are aware an upset can come any time. The seniors also said they will make sure to remind the rest of the team of that loss to Army they experienced as freshmen.

"It was obviously a really devastating loss for us," midfielder Ryan Barber said. "We were really highly seeded going into the tournament, and we were expecting to make it pretty far. Not being able to do so was pretty devastating to those (seniors). We certainly don't want to see that happen."

Bryant has the tools to keep the game close much the same way Army did in 2010. The Black Knights held a 12-7 advantage at the faceoff X. Bryant has the top faceoff man in the country in Kevin Massa. Army held the Orange to eight goals. The Bulldogs give up just more than nine goals per game.

This is only Bryant's fifth year at the Division I level, but they have a coach with a strong DI pedigree in Mike Pressler. He coached for 16 years at Duke before being fired amid the program's scandal in 2006. In his time with the Blue Devils, he led the team to three Atlantic Coast Conference titles, 10 NCAA Tournament berths and an appearance in the 2005 national title game.

"This is a Mike Pressler team," Orange head coach John Desko said. "He's a very good coach. His teams are always well-prepared, and he'll probably have a couple new wrinkles for us."

Senior JoJo Marasco also praised Pressler's coaching ability, and the SU players also discussed Massa's ability at the X and Bryant's 8-3 record in its last 11 games as reasons the Orange cannot take the Bulldogs lightly.

With the upset loss to Army still in the back of the seniors' minds, Syracuse knows as well as anyone that an opening round win cannot be taken for granted.

"I think we're really going to have to focus this week and have that in the back of our mind knowing that we can't take this team lightly," Marasco said. "We've got to come out ready to play."